Joanna Zjawinska is passionate about her work, her life, her family, her homeland, and the United States her adopted home. Passion is the key to her art, and, in equal measure, her art has incited passion in the hearts of her viewing audience. Her life has been operatic in scope, just as her work is operatic in substance. In Zjawinka's paintings and prints, hints of impressionism, expressionism, and art nouveau are evident within a style that is wholly her own. These influences, coupled with her love for the world of fashion design, color her work but do not define it. Zjawinska imbues each image with a sense of theater. She creates a world of glittering elegance where the people moving within the frame are chic, beautiful and dressed to the proverbial nines. It is world of aristocratic souls, who may or may not give in to base instinct. Then, there is the voyeuristic aspect of her images. The viewer feels like an observer who happens upon a private scene and is privy to the secrets of those involved. Therein unfolds the stories within Zjawinska's images. Since Joanna offers considerable room for interpretation, the conclusions to the stories laid out in her paintings and prints are left for the viewer to determine.